


Families and Other Strangers

by Sholio



Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Concussions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Sleepovers, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 10:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16083998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Missing scene for 1x13 after the fight. I felt the need for some healing aftermath, so here we are. This is for my h/c bingo "family" square.





	Families and Other Strangers

**Author's Note:**

> ... so I just watched Iron Fist season one. As of writing this, I haven't seen season two yet. No spoilers in comments, please!

For a long moment, after the sound of gunshots echoed and died, they just stood there, looking at each other. Then Ward slumped against the side of the building as if all the energy that had been keeping him going had suddenly run out. Colleen flung out a hand, steadying him. Danny had to lean a hip against an air conditioning kiosk on the roof to keep from falling over himself, as the pain and exhaustion of his injuries combined with the chi-drain of the Iron Fist hit him all at once.

"Are you okay?" Colleen asked, looking up. 

"I will be." Danny flexed his hand cautiously. It hurt like hell, but all the fingers moved. "You?"

"Better than you," she said with a quick grin. As the sound of sirens rose from below -- and still with one hand stabilizing Ward, who didn't seem to be entirely tracking on the conversation -- she added, "I don't want to ruin the moment here, but exactly how long is Harold going to stay, um ... dead?"

Ward made a choked sound that was something like a laugh. "Long enough." He raised a shaking hand to his face, then seemed to realize he was still holding the gun. Colleen caught his hand and carefully peeled it out of his fingers. "A few days. He'll be in the morgue before he comes ... back. He's not gonna sit up and start gunning down emergency workers any minute, if that's what you're worried about."

"I guess we better go," Danny said. "Before our way out is completely blocked."

"I can get you through if you run into problems." Ward wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, took a breath, and stepped away from Colleen. "I need to get down there anyway. Damage control, and ... all that." He gave another choked, sharp-edged not-a-laugh. "My supposedly dead dad just took a header off his own building into the middle of the street. The papers are going to be all over this ... shareholders are gonna lose their minds ... I need to --"

He swayed suddenly and Colleen caught him by the back of the jacket. "You need to go to the hospital, is where you need to go."

"Right. Hospital." Ward blinked rapidly, seemed to focus on Danny for the first time in the conversation. "You look like you could use one too."

"I'm all right."

"Uh huh. I can probably fend off the DEA for a little while. We got evidence, just need to get it to the right people ..."

"No hospitals." Danny flexed his bloody hand again. "I've got a friend who takes care of this kind of thing. Actually ..." He made a quick decision -- but it never _was_ really that much in doubt, after all. "If you don't want to walk into that media circus down there quite yet, you can come with us."

 

***

 

Claire was waiting behind the wheel of the getaway car around the corner from the Rand building, hat pulled down over her eyes. She jumped when Danny tapped on her window, then unlocked the doors for them.

"I hope you people understand that I committed a felony tonight," she said as they got into the backseat. "I mean, aside from all the other felonies I've been aiding and abetting lately. I did it, me, personally ..." At about that point she realized it was taking longer than it should have for Colleen and Danny to slide into the backseat, looked over her shoulder and found them manhandling someone else into the car. "Er, who's that?"

"Ward," Danny said. He slid in beside Ward and nodded to Colleen, who got into the front passenger seat. "Ward, this is Claire."

"Hi, Claire," said the dry voice she'd heard on Danny's phone. There was something incongruous about that cool, cultured voice coming from the wrecked-looking man covered in blood who was halfway draped over Danny's shoulder. Though Ward wasn't the only one who looked like hell. Colleen was bruised and scraped, and Danny was getting blood all over the seat from somewhere or other -- she might have _known_ this evening would end in stitches and bandages, she'd just known it.

"Is anyone going to bleed out in the length of time it'll take to drive to my apartment?" she asked, as two more emergency vehicles sped past with sirens wailing. "Because this place is turning into a madhouse and I suggest those of us who have recently committed felonies, which is probably all of us at this point, shouldn't be here."

"Someone needs to stay here to run damage control." Ward's voice cracked with exhaustion.

"Yeah, you could do that, or you could come with us and get a couple hours' sleep and deal with the media in the morning." Danny's immediate comeback had the sound of the latest volley in an argument that had probably been going on for awhile now.

"God, fine, whatever," Ward said and let his head fall back against the seat, part of which was currently composed of Danny's arm, but he didn't seem to notice.

"You don't have to take us to your place," Colleen said quietly, as Claire pulled out onto the street after a careful look around for cops. "The dojo --" She took a breath as if something had hurt her. "Okay, maybe not the dojo, not with the DEA staking it out. We can get a hotel --"

"Listen, at this point I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have people bleeding all over my mother's furniture." Claire smiled wryly. "Mom's out of town and I'm sure not going to sleep anytime soon. And everything I need to stitch you people up is already there. Do me a favor and distract me 'til I get sleepy enough to go to bed without visions of exploding propane tanks blowing up behind my eyes."

"If that's the worst thing you're having nightmares about, you're lucky." Ward's mumbled voice was almost too soft to hear.

"I'm sorry," Danny said quietly. "I never wanted you involved, Claire. Or any of you."

"Believe it or not, you're not my only friend who has a way of dragging me into this kind of situation." Claire shook her head. "Maybe I need new friends."

Colleen twisted around in her seat, draping an arm over it to reach out for Danny's hand. "We chose to be here, Danny. You didn't hold a gun to our heads and force us to help."

"Surprisingly, it's not always about you, Rand," Ward mumbled without opening his eyes, still using Danny's arm for a pillow.

 

***

 

Once she got a better look at Ward under the brighter lights in the apartment, Claire had second thoughts about the advisability of home health care in this case.

"If I were triaging you at an ER, I'd tell you to have an immediate CAT scan," she told him as she helped Danny sit him down on the couch after Colleen threw a sheet over it. He was white as his shirt -- whiter, actually, since he'd bled all over it. "You've probably got a concussion at the very least. What were you hit with?"

"Golf club." Ward screwed his eyes shut when she turned on another light over the couch. "I'm fine, I just need to lie down for awhile."

"Maybe you could let the medical professional decide that."

Danny was doing something vaguely like hovering, and blood was literally _dripping_ off his hand, so she sent him and Colleen off to the bathroom to get him cleaned up, while she put on gloves. Ward obediently leaned forward to let her probe at the bruise and gash on the back of his head. "Were you unconscious?" she asked, probing for soft places in his skull.

"Ow," he muttered. "Yeah, a little, I guess."

"A 'little'? How long?"

"Dunno." He smiled thinly through the hair falling over his face. "I was unconscious for it."

"Smartass," she muttered. "What about now? Are you having any secondary symptoms? Dizziness? Nausea? Headache?"

Despite having his face screwed up with pain, Ward immediately got a thoughtful look that she recognized as "patient tries to decide which symptoms to downplay to get the desired diagnosis." Probing around the bruise a little harder than necessary, she added, "Let me remind you that if you throw up or bleed on my mother's furniture, you're cleaning it up. Therefore, if you're going to need a wastebasket, _tell_ me."

"She's not kidding about that, by the way," Danny called through the open door of the bathroom.

"You're not supposed to be listening to this!" Claire called back. "Nurse-patient confidentiality! Colleen, distract him."

Danny gave a pained yelp and the bathroom door swung shut. Smiling slightly, Ward said quietly, "All of the above. I don't think it's too bad. I've had a concussion before."

Claire decided not to ask for details on that; something in his tone warned her away. Instead she said, "Brain injuries are cumulative. They can be worse the second time around." 

Ward grunted acknowledgement. "I'm not worried."

Claire decided not to touch _that_ one. "Let me see your eyes."

Pupil response was normal, so she decided to let it go and reached for tweezers. "You've also got some embedded glass in your neck and shoulders. Do you mind taking off your shirt?"

"Yes," Ward said.

Claire huffed out a breath. What _was_ it with the people she kept meeting and their self-destructive tendencies? "Then I guess you go to bed tonight with glass in your skin, and let the ER deal with it when it starts to fester."

Ward seemed to think about this for a minute or two, then began to slowly unbutton his shirt. Claire gave him a hand getting it off, and as soon as she saw what was under it, she got an idea of why he might have wanted to keep it on.

"Looks like you've had a difficult few days," she said noncommittally, taking in the abrasions on his wrists and the fading bruises on his torso. "I can put some ointment on those scrapes when I'm done with the glass."

"Whatever," Ward muttered. He locked his hands together between his knees and lowered his head again.

She was done and had him bundled up in a sweatshirt that one of her other ... "guests" had left behind by the time Danny and Colleen came out of the bathroom. Ward lay down on the couch, stretched out and giving Danny a sideways glare when he looked like he was thinking about sitting on the end of it. Danny took a seat, instead, on the chair opposite, and Claire moved over to start working on his hand and the inevitable embedded glass bits. Colleen, meanwhile, went quietly into the kitchen. "Claire, do you mind if I raid your fridge? I'll make up for it tomorrow."

"Go ahead. Tea probably wouldn't be a bad idea if you want to put on some water for it."

Danny brightened at this. From the couch came a mumble of, "Ugh, tea."

"If that was an oblique request for coffee, I refuse to approve caffeine for head injuries," Claire said crisply, stitching up a gash on Danny's arm. "Anyway, none of us need caffeine tonight because _all_ of us need sleep."

Colleen came out of the kitchen with mugs of tea and sandwiches by the time she finished up with Danny. "What about you?" Claire asked her. "Any hidden injuries I need to know about?"

Colleen stretched out her hands. "Some broken glass, but Danny and I got most of it in the bathroom. I don't want to put you to any trouble."

"It's oddly relaxing for me," Claire said. "Sit down."

After she got Colleen taken care of, she passed around over-the-counter analgesics -- Ward showed no interest in food, but she did get him to sit up long enough to take a couple of Tylenol with a mouthful of tea -- and then sat on the floor with her back against the couch and grabbed a sandwich of her own. Danny settled with his back against Colleen's knees, and Colleen idly combed her fingers through his hair while she ate.

"Ground rules," Claire said through a mouthful, and pointed with her mug. "Those two doors are Mom's bedroom and mine. No one goes in there. Feel free to use the bathroom or do whatever in the kitchen. I'll drag out the spare bedding as soon as I manage to get up, and otherwise you're on your own."

"I wasn't going to stay," Colleen began.

"Are you kidding? With the way things are going, I can't say I mind having a couple of ninjas in my living room for protection."

"Well," Danny said, smiling, "if you put it that way, how can we refuse?" Colleen sighed and patted his head.

"The only thing I can't give you is a guest bed," Claire said. "Between the couches and cushions, you ought to be able to work something out."

"Dibs on the couch," Ward mumbled.

"Yeah," Danny said, "we figured that out. Hey ... Claire ... are we supposed to wake him up every half hour, or what?"

Ward cracked an eye open. "You better not."

"No, that's a myth. Sleep is better. It would probably be a good idea if someone would wake him up halfway through the night just to make sure he's still responsive, though."

Colleen promptly turned to Danny and placed her fist in her open hand. Danny grinned a sudden, bright sunshine smile, startling Claire with its sheer infectious joy. "I haven't done this in _years,"_ he said, and then immediately had his rock wrapped by her paper. "Dammit. Best two of three?"

"Or you could just leave me alone," Ward suggested sleepily.

"Do we really need to have the conversation about following nurse's orders?" Claire struggled to her feet with the sandwich half-eaten. Sleep was creeping up on her now; if she sat here any longer, she wasn't going to be able to muster the energy to drag out the spare bedding. "I'm going to give you all a pile of blankets and leave you to figure out who gets what. And then I'm going to bed."

Later, in her bedroom, she lay awake with a stripe of dim light gleaming under the closed door and listened to quiet voices from the living room: Danny and Colleen, hashing over the day's events, she guessed from the gentle cadence of voices a little too soft to hear the words. Every once in a while there was a muttered interjection from Ward, the cranky tone coming through even if she couldn't make out what he was saying.

There was something strangely comfortable about not being alone in the apartment after all of this. Claire rolled over, wrapped an arm around the pillow to tuck it more snugly under her head, and reached out to touch Luke's letter on the bedside table.

She just kept getting mixed up with these people. Couldn't seem to help it.

She fell asleep with her fingertips resting on the letter and a soft argument in the living room washing thoughts of exploding propane tanks out of her head.

 

***

 

Danny had set his internal alarm clock to wake him up in three hours, but there was still a moment of total confusion when his eyes snapped open in a strange room, with unfamiliar-smelling blankets over him and an unfamiliar floor underneath.

The room was painted in the hazy light of the city at night, attenuated through the drapes and turning everything to a study in monochrome shadows. Danny lay awake for a few minutes, just listening to the soft breathing of Colleen and Ward: both of them deep asleep, from the sound of it. Then he pushed back the blankets and padded into the kitchen, where he drank half a glass of water before he refilled it and went over to prod Ward awake.

Ward woke with a jerk and a flail and a strangled cry that made Colleen, on the far side of the coffee table, suck in a breath and roll over. Danny caught Ward's wrist, then transferred his grip to Ward's forearm when there was a hiss of startled pain. "Shhh," he whispered, and a little louder, "Colleen, it's just me, go back to sleep."

"Oh," Ward said blankly. "It's you." He sank back down onto the couch, and plucked absently at the blanket that Danny and Colleen had draped over him. "Where, why -- oh. This is the prescribed is-he-dead check, isn't it."

"I was going to ask you if you know what year it is, but I'd have to do the math to figure it out myself, so I guess I'll just take that as a yes." Danny pressed the glass into Ward's limp hand. "Water?"

"No," Ward said, but he let Danny put a hand under his back and push him into a half-sitting position so he could drink.

"You want more Tylenol or something?" Danny's hand was hurting again. He drew in a breath and let it out, pushing the pain to a small box in his head like he'd been taught. 

"No," Ward said reflexively. "Yes. Maybe. Ugh. Where are they?" 

"Bathroom, I think. I could get them."

"I don't need you waiting on me."

After a long moment of gathering his energy, Ward set the glass down, heaved himself off the couch with a groan, and lurched to the bathroom. The door closed and the light came on, and Danny sat back down on top of the pallet he'd made up for himself alongside the couch.

He could've gone back to sleep. It sounded like Colleen had, from her slow, steady breathing. But he didn't really want to. It was peaceful, just sitting here like this, listening to Colleen breathe and occasional small snores from the closed door of Claire's bedroom, even the little sounds of Ward fussing around in the bathroom. Peaceful ... in a different way than K'un Lun was peaceful. Peaceful in a way he hadn't known in fifteen years.

The toilet flushed; the bathroom door opened and light dazzled him briefly before Ward reached back to flip it off. "What are you doing, waiting up to make sure I don't fall in? For the record," he said as he retraced his lurching path back to the couch, hanging onto the furniture, "I didn't."

"I know. I'm not ..." But he couldn't really explain what he was doing. Instead he lay back down and laced his hands together behind his head. That hurt, too. But not in a way that meant his hand was damaged forever. Just in a good healing-hurt kind of way.

Ward rustled around on the couch, getting settled. People were so loud here, Danny thought. It had taken him awhile to get used to it. Even Colleen, and she was more quiet and still than most people. Most people in K'un Lun moved with a silent economy of motion that was completely unknown here. They didn't fuss around, accidentally knocking the tail of the blanket onto Danny's face, with clearly no idea where all their limbs were in the dark.

Eventually Ward must have gotten into a halfway comfortable position, because there was relative quiet, though Danny could tell he wasn't asleep yet from the quick cadence of his breathing. It steadied, a little, as the painkillers kicked in.

"You still awake?" Ward said softly, after a little while.

A fragment of memory stung Danny, sharp as an ice crystal. Childhood sleepovers, Ward in the top bunk (he'd always claimed top), Danny below, talking and giggling quietly in the dark. They hadn't always liked each other. But it had been easier, sometimes, on those nights when they were half asleep and couldn't see each other -- just a voice, coming in out of the dark.

"Yeah," he said after a minute.

"Mmm." Ward was quiet, then: "I was just thinking ..." He trailed off.

"Sleeping over when we were kids. Yeah."

"You get mind-reading powers in that monastery too?" There was a hint of nastiness in Ward's hoarse voice.

"If I had, the last couple of weeks would've gone a lot smoother."

Ward gave a short laugh. "Yeah. Guess so."

They lay there in a silence that was almost companionable. Danny listened to the sounds of the city outside in the night. He could get used to it, he thought ... get used to it again, more accurately. It had been the soundtrack of his world, once.

"You said to me not too long ago," Ward said quietly, and Danny stirred, turning his head to listen, "that you used to think of me as a brother."

Danny made a soft, acknowledging sound.

"A terrible, jackass brother, I think were the words you used."

A smile twitched at the edge of Danny's mouth. "I stand by that, by the way. Both parts of that," he added, softer.

There was a throat-clearing noise from the other side of the coffee table. "I hate to interrupt whatever is going on over there," Colleen said, "but some of us are trying to _sleep."_

Ward made a strangled sound, and Danny's half-smile broke into a full grin: lying there in the dark, gazing up at the ceiling, feeling safer and happier than he'd felt in a long time. "Good night, Colleen," he said. "Good night, Ward."

"Good night," Colleen said. "Now go to sleep."

"You heard the lady; go the fuck to sleep, Danny." But he could tell, by the sound of Ward's voice in the dark, that (perhaps against his will) Ward was smiling too.

**Author's Note:**

> As you can see, my fondness for fixing everything terrible that happens to any characters in any fandom with sleepovers continues unabated.


End file.
